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Gatley
- The End of the Line
By Peter Boden 3. HISTORICAL EVENTS. Click on images to enlarge In late November 1745 a patrol of 55 soldiers was sent from the ill-fated Jacobite Army of Charles Edward Stuart (The Young Pretender) to find suitable crossings to the south across the River Mersey. They found the Northenden and Gatley fords. On Sunday 1st December 1745, one army division, under the command of Lord George Murray used these crossings. The main body of the division used the Gatley ford. The other column, which consisted of cavalry, used the Northenden ford. The army division, under the direct control of the Prince, crossed the Mersey further east. The artillery and general baggage crossed over the new Cheadle bridge from Didbury. The main body crossed at the Stockport ford. The army re-combined near Macclesfield, and slowly progressed towards their “end of the line” at Derby. What if Prince Charles Edward had succeeded in his mission to win London? Gatley would have been instrumental in providing the present generation with a Royal Stuart name of ancient lineage, instead of a Windsor name created in 1914. During 1762 the famous canal engineer James Brindley surveyed a new waterway through Gatley, but it was never built. It is perhaps just as well as I might have fallen in it!
In 1917 a Sopwith Strutter fighter plane landed in a field near Barnes Hospital (Illus. 13). The rumour at the time stated that the pilot was visiting his girl friend at Barnes. The plane was guarded overnight by members of the Cheshire Volunteers. The photograph shows Lieutenant W. A. Lowcock, and the uniformed Reverend John Bruster of St. James’ Church, Gatley. These Volunteers operated with the Cheshire Regiment, and were similar to the Home Guard of the 1940s. My grandfather John Boden was in the same platoon of volunteers, and was also the landlord of the “George & Dragon” in Cheadle. There was great excitement one day in 1927 when the day light faded away for a short time. It was a total eclipse of the sun with its shadow spreading across North Wales, Gatley and Scarborough. I recall the jostling crowd collecting outside the Co-op although I was only three years old. We had to look through glass which had been heavily smoked by candles to protect our eyes. The next total eclipse is due in the south-west on 11th August 1999. During the 1930s, after being shot from a car by her boyfriend, Miss Edith Richardson lay dead in Stonepail Road, opposite Greenbank Farm, for an hour (Illus. 17). I know as I saw the covered body. Apparently there was a dispute over which police area covered the crime.
The famous Airship R101 (the one that later crashed in flames at Beauvais on its way to India) flew overhead one day. This caused great amazement in the village. L. S. Lowry, the famous painter who usually drew “matchstick” figures, walked along a pathway through Gatley in 1936. He stopped to admire and make a sketch of the Georgian mansion, High Grove House. He recorded the picture in his book of sketches as “The Old House, Gatley”.
Finally, and
most important of all, I was born at 167, Gatley Road (Illus. 7). The
timing of this great event was influenced one night by the transit of
the last tram. It was flashing and rumbling past the house at 10.47
pm on its way back home through the night of 30th January 1925. That
tram nearly frightened the life out of me! |
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